Charles h



(No Model.)

0. H. WILLGOX.

' SEWING MACHINE NEEDLE.

No. 357,805. Patented Feb. 15, 1887.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES H. WILLCOX, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO THE l/VILLGOX & GIBBS SERVING MACHINE COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

SEWING-MACHINE NEEDLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent. No. 357,805, dated February 15, 1887.

Application filed June 8, 1886.

1'0 al-ZZ. whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES H. WILLCOX, of New York city, in the county and State of New York, have invented a new and useful 5 Improvement in- Sewing- Machine Needles, which improvement.is fully set forth in the following specification.

This invention relatesto eye-pointed needles for use in sewing-machines, and particularly {0 in sewing-machines which use an eyepointed needle in connection with a hook-heedle, as described in "Wisemans patents, No. 228,711, dated June 8, 1880, and No. 243,023, dated June 14, 1881, and in the application of myself and George H. Noble, filed June 8, 1886, and officially numbered 204,516. In machines of this latter class the two needles are set parallel, the hook-needle directly in front of the other, and are reciprocated together. The eyepointed needle pushes theloop ofsewing-thread through the fabric. The loop is then caught by looping mechanism, which places it in the hook needle. This latter carries the loop through to the other side of the fabric. The eye-pointed needle, in again entering the fabric, passes through the loop, which drops off the hook-needle and is drawn against the eyepointed needle, and when the latter is with drawn for another stitch the thread locks the loop. hen in these machines the looping mechanism takes the loop of thread from the eye-pointed needle the thread is carried off at right angles to the axis of the eye, and a considerable length is drawn through the eye and 5 rather sharply around the edge thereof, in order. that the loop may be placed in the hook of the hook-needle. Vith the ordinary sewingmachine needle, which has a short groove on that side, the thread is apt to be frayed or out. To produce an efficient needle not open to this objection is mainly the object of the present invention, which to that end consists in an eye-pointed sewing-machine needle provided, in place of the ordinary short groove, with a fiat surface formed by cutting away the cylindrical blade of the needle at and for a short distance above and below'the eye, and

having the edge where the eye joins said sur-.

face rounded, so that the thread can be drawn go smoothly over and around the edge with but little or no liability to be'worn or cut thereby.

Serial No. 204,649. (No model.)

needle, as usual, consists of a shank, a, blade I), point e, and eye (I. On the side shown in Fig. I, where the short groove ordinarily would be, the blade is cut away or ground off at and for a short distance above and below 6 the eye (1, leaving a tlat surface, 300. This cutting or grinding is best done by the pe riphery of a cylindrical tool of comparatively large diameter, whose axisis at right angles to that of the needle. The object is to have practically a plane or flat surface where the eye terminates on that side of the needle, and to have this surface merge gradually into the regular cylindrical surface of the blade. The edge of the eye is rounded or counterbored, as shown at 301', so that the thread will run smoothly over it. Just below the eye there is a transverse notch or recess, 302, which is cut well in toward the axis of the needle, nearer than the fiat surface at which the eye terminates.

On the'side of the needle not shown in Fig. I is the usual long groove, which, however, is not made of uniform depth, as customary, but is shallower in proximity to the needle-eye, as shown at 303 in Fighll, than it is nearer the shank, so as at that point to stiffen and strengthen the bladeand compensate for the metal removed to form the notch 302. I

The notch 302 permits the looper to-work o closer to the axis of the needle than it otherwise could. Were it not for this notch the surface 300 would or might extend below the eye precisely as it does extend above it; but, as shown, the notch cuts into the surface, leaving only a small space between the notch and the The shank a is flattened on one side for enabling it to be secured in the needle-carrier or needle-bar more accurately and firmly; but [00 this flattening is no part of the invention.

Modifications may be made in details without departing from the spirit of the invention,

and parts of the invention may be used separately, as by omitting, for example, the transverse noteh from the needle and providing it 5 with a long groove of uniform depth.

I claim 1. An eye-pointed sewing-machine needle having the blade at and for a short distance above and below the eye on one side of said 2. An eye-pointed sewingmaehine needle having on one side of the blade a flat surface where the eye terminates and a transverse notch below the eye, and on the opposite side of the blade at long groove, substantially as 20 described.

In testimony whereof I have signed this speelfication in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHAS. H. \VILLOOX.

WVitnesses:

PHILIP MAURO, C. J. HEDRIOK. 

